For Filmmaker Doyle, Hong Kong After Occupy a Tale of Three Cities

The work of Hong Kong filmmaker Christopher Doyle has defined the city. Best known for his collaborations with Wong Kar-wai, Doyle has a distinctly recognizable style—lingering shots that follow protagonists through a hyper-saturated world—exemplified in classics such as “In the Mood for Love” and “Chungking Express.” But Doyle’s latest film is working to define the city in another way, as one of the first films to address the Occupy movement.

The “Hong Kong Trilogy” is a three-part pseudo-documentary dedicated to the stories of the children, youth and elderly of Hong Kong, named “Preschooled,” “Preoccupied” and “Preposterous,” respectively. Doyle takes a decidedly simplified approach, with a realistic yet at times absurd storytelling style he calls “realidada.” The film is a patchwork of a variety of voices: From schoolchildren to aspiring rappers, from a mainland Chinese street singer to an urban farmer who grew organic vegetables in the Occupy camps. Their words overlay footage of the city, its people and the protests, weaving together an investigative narrative all about what it means to live in the SAR.

The first segment, focusing on schoolchildren, began as a commission from the Hong Kong International Film Festival, with the short film premiering last March, while the following parts were filmed and evolved just as the Occupy movement swept the city exactly a year ago. The film was backed by a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, allowing Doyle and his team to start filming immediately, rather than having to wait months on end for a film company to invest. Launched in January, the campaign successfully raised USD124,126 in a month—20 percent more than Doyle’s goal.

The People’s Project
Having lived and worked in Hong Kong for over four decades, Doyle stresses the importance of this film in terms of its relevance for Hong Kong people, as well as celebrating the city as a whole. “Hong Kong is my home, it’s where my energy comes from,” he says. “I live here and I love it here, but who am I to speak for other people? You have to let go: You have to stand back and let the thing happen.” As a result, Doyle says that 90 percent of the film is “people expressing themselves, and us giving them a visual parameter. A context.” Doyle gives most of the credit for the film to the individuals who gave their voices to the 10 days of filming, and over a year of interviewing people from hundreds of different backgrounds. “They’re just telling us how they feel about being in Hong Kong at their age, and they can do it much better than I can.”

The team would head to the Occupy camp at Admiralty at 6am to avoid being recognized